U cruisin'

King Leopold I depicted on the Vienna Plague Column, a mercy to ending the 1679 plague

Leaving Budapest, we boarded the Danube River Cruise, "U" by Uniworld headed to Regensburg, Germany.  We found this cruise online and it looked intriguing because it is new, lower price and marketed to the younger (or young-at-heart) traveler.  At our first peak at the all-black sleek ship to the lack of classical piano music, we knew it would be different!

"U" ready for us to leave

Sail-away party on the upper deck

Karen joined one of the bike rides in Budapest

The ship carried 50 bicycles that had to be carried on and off for the bike rides

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The ship is mid-sized (120 capacity) but we only had about 80 people and while the youngest person we met was 21 and the oldest was 85, I think the average age was around 35.  The schedule & activities reflected this demographic-only 2 meals a day (brunch- for sleeping late and dinner-early enough to still go off ship), late night DJ and Silent Disco (each person moves to the sounds of their individual headphones), daily bicycle and hiking excursions and late-night walks and clubbing at our port stops. The crew, including the two captains, were casual, engaged and really seemed to enjoy customers closer to their age.

Our good-natured Dutch Captains were extremely experienced with 35 years each

We sailed through 14 locks, sometimes at night, but many during the day.  Usually the locks were big enough for two ships at once.  Each lock took about 20 minutes with an average of 10-12 meters difference and some of the "gates" rather than swing open slid down into a cement bottom under the water. We also went under many, many bridges and the wheelhouse and the "ice bar" on the upper decks had to be lowered to fit under.

(videos compliments of Mike on board with his drone)

Flag poles and anything high was also folded down

Collaping or folding down the "ice bar" to fit under the bridges

We visited three capital cities in three countries on the Danube-Budapest, Hungary; Blatislava, Slovenia; and Vienna, Austria. 

The Danube Rive

Hungarian Parliment in Budapest is right on the river's edge

Bratislava is the only national capital that borders two sovereign states-Hungary and Austria (the borders run down the middle of the Danube River) - In 1993, Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia.  

The Executioner's House- apparently at one time Brastislava had the only executioner in the region, so he needed to identify his house for anyone needing his services!

Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising in Brastislava-or locally known as the UFO Bridge because of its observation deck
 - we were stumped at first when when our guide called it "the oo-foo bridge"

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna-completed in 1160

this Byzantine style icon of St. Mary came from a Hungarian church when the Ottoman Turks invaded Hungary.  After claims of two miraculous incidents in 1696 when the mother in the picture shed real tears, Emperor Leopold I ordered it brought to St. Stephen's Cathedral to protect it. 

Each day we had several activities to choose from.  We mostly did the hikes to more castles, abbys and vineyards. A few evenings we went on the "pub crawl" but we usually came back early...ha ha.

Why are castle always up on hills??  In a small charming town of Durnstein, Austria that is known as the "Pearl of the Wachau" which is the valley around Durnstein.  The town is famous as the place where Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) was imprisoned by Leopold V. Duke of Austria

All along the Danube, the Bavarian towns had a May Pole in their town squares, a tradition going back to the 16th century.  The poles often have real trees attached to the top with ribbons decorating wreaths.  Some poles have carved figures that identify the various craftspeople in that town.  In some more rural towns, the tradition of single men placing a small may pole in front of their sweatheart's front door still occurs around May 1st.

the pole is often stripped of the bark so agile young men can climb in a contest.

We ended the cruise in Regensburg where we found a local beer fest and tried some local brews.  Beer is always plentiful along the Danube and we visited many beer gardens!